Enos Park neighborhood group partnering with trash hauler for pickup program

Wednesday

Apr 2, 2014 at 9:30 PMApr 4, 2014 at 9:52 AM

By Dan PetrellaStaff Writer

Neighborhood leaders in Enos Park say they’re tired of watching the Springfield City Council kick the trash can down the road, so they’re partnering with one waste hauler to offer a neighborhoodwide pickup program.

Ward 6 Ald. Cory Jobe, Ward 3 Ald. Doris Turner and Mayor Mike Houston’s administration in 2012 proposed adding the fees residents pay to waste haulers to their City Water, Light and Power bills. Supporters said the change would have made it easier to identify customers who didn’t have trash services, a perennial problem for the city. Officials estimated at the time that 3,000 households didn’t have trash service.

Although the proposal would have allowed customers to keep their current waste haulers, it was never called for a vote after meeting with strong opposition from two local companies, Lake Area Disposal and Illini Disposal.

Michelle Higginbotham, president of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association, said her group strongly supported the plan. When it was scuttled, the group decided to come up with a plan of its own.

“We just want the garbage picked up. It’s that basic,” said Higginbotham, who noted that trash pickup has been an issue at least since she moved to Springfield more than a decade ago. “If we need to go to a single hauler to be able to accomplish that in our neighborhood, then that’s what we’ll do.”

The neighborhood group is teaming with Allied Waste Services, which will offer weekly trash and recycling pickup for $39.75 every three months. New customers who sign up with Allied will get their first three months of service free, and existing customers will get a free month for each new customer they refer with a limit of three free months. For that rate, the company will give customers a 65-gallon trash can and a 95-gallon all-in-one recycling can, both of which will have wheels and lids.

“Essentially, what we’re going to try to do is go as close to having a single hauler in Enos Park as we can get,” Higginbotham said.

The incentives the company is offering should be enough to convince many people to sign up, she said. The company currently serves about 30 percent of the neighborhood, and the goal is to increase that to 80 percent.

The neighborhood group will be going door to door Saturday to promote the program, and representatives from Allied will speak at the group’s monthly meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Third Presbyterian Church, 1030 N. Seventh St.

The group’s board members have switched to Allied for their properties, and homebuyers who purchase properties from Enos Park Development LLC, the group’s development arm, will be required to use the company as well.

Habitat for Humanity and MERCY Communities, both of which have a strong presence in the neighborhood, also have agreed to switch, Higginbotham said.

She said she hopes the Enos Park effort sends a message to the city council and to other neighborhoods that struggle with fly dumping and other problems often attributed to the city’s current garbage policy.

“Nobody has ever managed to successfully tackle this issue of garbage reform, but if we can start it in our neighborhood and show that it works, then it becomes pretty easy for a Harvard Park or Lincoln Park or one of the other older neighborhoods that struggles with the same issues to reach out and partner with a company,” Higginbotham said.

Jobe said it’s unfortunate that the city council wasn’t able to address the garbage problem. The council was one vote shy of being able to pass the proposal he backed, and aldermen haven’t changed their positions in the meantime, he said.

“The neighborhood associations are taking their quality of life into their own hands,” Jobe said. “I applaud their efforts.”

Correction: Based on information the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association had at the time, a previous version of this story gave the incorrect rate neighborhood residents will pay. Allied later lowered its rate from $41.25 to $39.75.

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